Asus M50Sa ugrade

Hi to all.
I don't see much detailed discussion about M50 series here, so I start it by myself
Intel PM965 inside. T9300 and ATI HD3650, 2x2Gb RAM 533.
What I changed already:
2x2Gb 533 RAM =>> 2x4Gb RAM 667, 5-5-5-15 (800/6-6-6).
T9300 =>> X9100 C0 (using BSEL).
Default last BIOS =>> modded last BIOS (I added Option ROM for Asus Nvidia GTX260M ver.2) and some new CPU codes (which is practically unuseful).
90W PSU =>> 230W PSU (Asus SADP-230AB D, 19.5V/ 11.8A, 7.4x5.5 1Pin to 5.5x2.5 handmade connector).
No heat sink on southbridge =>> CPU heat sink from another Asus laptop.
Next options:
HD3650 =>> GTX260M



Right now I can successfully OC X9100 via SetFSB (up to 260MHz FSB - about 2968MHz) or ThrottleStop (1.238VID/x16/3192Mhz). These 2 configurations are stable. OC via FSB gives lower temps, while OC via multipier gives more power (and heat).

I also changed cooling system: took off the backpad of mobo, placed it on Choix cooling table for laptops and added 3 Arctic Cooling standalone 5V USB fans - they are powerfull enough to cool down the northbridge, cpu and vga to 47, 36/34 and 46C respectively in idle and 65, 55/53, 55 in high load.
And after any 3500MHz or higher I usually have BSOD - I think the problem may be in ac/dc adapter. I've already changed it to 130W, but it seems that this gives no big change.

 

You might be able to use a GTX 260M from an Asus G51. But, the 260M is a 75 watt chip, and your 3650 is a 30 watt chip. It might be safer to use a 9600M(23W), 9700M(45W), or 9800M(65W). All those card were used in the Asus G50 and G51.

You have to use an Asus video card, because they are reverse MXM.

EDIT: Your laptop was actually configurable with a 9600M I believe.

 

Mr.Mischief
yes, but I choosed 260m It's more powerfull and I've already modded current BIOS for it. I'll change the default cooling system more precisely to cool it. I ordered not only 260m itself but full cooling system from G60Vx including CPU heat sink (actually it's the same as M50 has), copper backpad and upper heat sink.

EDIT: I also have some replacement CPU fan 5V 0.5A. Current HD3650 has not exellent bottom and upper heat sinks, thin heat pipe. It was the hottest part of the laptop till X9100 came to town ^^
Some ppl claimed that max TDP for HD3650 is 78 Watts. So, it's not like X9100 but almost near it.

 

Cool! Laptop modding is so much fun

 

Yes, I found that rule "add more heat sinks = profit" is useless for laptops. You deal with small space inside... You are to remove the back cover and use additional cooling or to leave the cover, boost the cpu fan and fit all the parts of initial cooling system. New rule is "more heat pipes and powerfull fan = almost profit"

 

Congrats for the upgrades and good luck with your next ones

I used both approaches, so far I'm satisfied. The laptop is capable to cool itself, but I do use the cooler when I'm in home, since - the cooler, the better.

It is

 

nice, i have those exact same specs, T9300 and 3650 HD, i have the Asus F8SP. thought about trying to upgrade it, but it would cost too much and not sure if it can handle the heat. plus, thinking about getting a new laptop soon

 

Silverfern
I got X9100 for $103 and GTX260M+cooling for $160. Plus new 8GB RAM - about $140, plus new battery for $60, plus new AC/DC adapter for $86... It's up to you what way to prefer - easy (to buy new laptop toy) or not easy (to upgrade old). I choosed the second because I like my current laptop, it's almost good, just need to improve some features. And the most exiting part itself is to modify and upgrade it.

Thx triturbo, I saw your achievements, looking good BTW, how much Watts is your AC/DC adapter? I have no problem with high temperatures with my new cooling system, but I have BSOD at 3650-3800MHz. Maybe it's not enough power or VID...

 

1. My alternative cooling system - 3 Arctic Cooling Breeze Mobile fans ($8 each) and Choiix laptop cooling pad (about $30).

2. Fan detailed. Great fans indeed. I bought them initially to cool myself at summer, but they are useful to cool everything.

3. Basic view of laptop's backside. Just added some alum tape to fan and some radiator to southbridge. There is no need to add more passive coolers since I can use these 3 Arctic fans. They do really great job

4. And this is the back side of Asus G60Vx. As you can see the VGA heat sink is wider and better. My nest step is to setup up the same VGA and cooling system for it. Also, I want to fix some heat pipe on the surface of southbridge.

 

Exactly and it's 16:10

Thanks 120W Cooler Master USNA120. I see that you got SLB48, which is C0 revision and tends to run hotter and probably consumes more juice, hence reduces the overclock headroom. You say that the temps are no issue, so when you get new PSU, let us know how it performs.

Nice cooling pad That cooling is a must! If there was heatsink with thicker/dual heatpipes, compatible with mine, I wont think twice!

 

Sure. Hmm, I have 133Watts PSU now... well, it seems that BSOD comes not from lack of power. But anyway I will need more power to use my new 75W gtx260m, so 230W will not be useless.

Maybe, you can try to use this one (see jpg)?
It's good, but I need to cool northbridge also, so, it's almost useless for me... Maybe of course I can take only heat pipes and stick it on some surface...

Also, how do think - which fan is better - with plastic case or metallic?

 

You'll do it either way, but when the new PSU arrives, give it a go and let us know.

It would be awesome, but it won't fit and my GPU has upside-down placement.

I really don't know. Since it's fan, not heatsink or something, both would do the job. if there's difference in the blade count and etc, this is where you should point your attention.

 

I got new used heat pipe from some Asus laptop ($3,5) and installed it on southbridge. Looking good There is small gap between it and VGA heat pipe, so the last takes no additional heat. The new pipe is connected directly to fan's surface.
At 3192MHz/1.238VID CPU temps are 58/58C max at moderate load (WoT, LoTRO, Entropia etc.). And ATI HD3650 goes up to 69C max (46C idle).

 

How's your battery life

 

lebob23
What exactly do you mean? I published some screens with battery stats. It holds about 3 hours at full load (7 cells).

 

I can't find the screenshots but,

Thats amazing my notebook does the same and it has less than half the GPU power

 

lebob23
It seems that image hosting deleted my sreens( I'll make new, just find the right site... Are you talking about 240M or another card?

 

Update: as I wrote before I ordered new 230W PSU. Today I received it, but my new chinease friends sent me this one instead of ordered. So, I'm very angry. I didn't modified it yet, since I hope to return it and get the right (= initially ordered) one. So, I made a handmade 7.4x5.0 to 5.5x2.5 connector and my laptop is running from this new 230W Dell-like PSU
Please, ask if you are interested in some questions regarding it. PSU specs are: 19.74V (measured by me)/11.8A (measured by chinease friends).

 

Today I start to publish photos ans specs of all my recent updates. I hope this will help someone. First, my new RAM:
SO-DIMM DDR2 4Gb PC6400 800Mhz QUMO (QUM2S-4G800K6R) x 2 pcs
$63 each of 2 pcs. Total RAM running is 8Gb.

 

New CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme x9100 SLB48. $103 for 1 used (it was pulled from Lenovo laptop, I hope previous owner didn't OC it ^^).
This is not actual photo of directly my CPU, because it's already installed and working. I don't want to pull it from laptop that's why I took photo of the same CPU from Google search

 

I need some help. I installed asus nvidia gtx 260m into my mobo and pressed power button. POST passed, but after "Checking NVRAM..." I got this message:
"No physical memory is available at the location required for the Windows Boot Manager. The system can not continue".
Any ideas? What's going wrong?

 

Try taking out 1 stick of ram (just as a test, if this is what I think it is then there is a solution).

 

I have 2x4 Gb of RAM. I tried only with 1 stick of 4 Gb, but didn't try with 1 stick of 2 Gb (my old RAM). Thanks, I'll try this. This is actually my last "hope" since I see no difference between "inserting new PCI Option ROM from another BIOS" (as I did) and "deleting some old PCI Option ROM and inserting new from another BIOS" (as all people do).
I also found this topic.
Tony2k said:
The 9500m GS in my Asus M50sv died so I bought a 9650m. I have modded the bios swapping the module from M50v bios.
Now the laptop boot and the gpu it's recognised from win 7 but I have only a problem, the fan now work always at the max speed and it's really noisy. What can I do?
If somebody want to take a look here there are the bioses: bios.rar

I took his two BIOSes and opened via MMTOOL: there are only 2 changes - the new PCI Option ROM and Image Information (ID 80). It seems that he deleted PCI Option ROM for Nvidia 8800 and inserted PCI Option ROM for Nvidia 9650. After deletion of module Image Information should change as I think. So, he did almost the same. The difference is that I didn't deleted PCI Option ROMs for old card, because BIOS itself has good dynamical size compression and there is no big need to delete something at first. Am I right?

PS. Asus M50Sv has the same BIOS as my mobo. But M50Vm has different. G50, G51, M50Vm, G60Vx - all of them work great with gtx 260m, but only G60Vx has PCI Option ROM for it. That's weird. I read posts of people who never changed their default BIOSes, but there was no problem with 260m.

 

No, it's not RAM. I tried stick of 2 Gb, another one of 1 Gb - no change, the same message.

 

So, noone can help

I assume that some of Asus VGA MXM cards have its own vBIOS and some don't have. You can see into main system BIOS: if there is no PCI Option ROM for any VGA board inside - vBIOS is located on MXM card itself. For examlpe, Asus G70Sg supports GTX 260M, but has no PCI Option ROM for it in his system BIOS. Thus there are 2 possible options:
1. vBIOS for 260M is located on VGA board directly;
2. vBIOS is included in 1B module of system BIOS (i.e Single Link Arch BIOS).

My next step is to find answers on these questions:
1. Why system BIOS (ver. 203 and 205) for Asus G60Vx has strange vBIOS version (62.92.83.00.0F) and sub vendor id of Lenovo inc. (17AA) while it should be id of Asus (1043)?
2. Why PCI Option ROM from last system BIOS of G60Vx (from Asus's download page) wan't work with 260M card pulled from Asus G60Vx mobo?
3. What if I take some vBIOS of 260M from mvktech.com, insert it as PCI Option ROM into system BIOS for M50Sa and try it?
4. Am I right that if there is no PCI Option ROM with any VGA board id inside system BIOS - vBIOS is located in VGA board's flash memory? Does it mean that VGA cards with its own vBIOS-o-board can just work in mobo or not? And that's all. No chance to deal with it.
5. I saw some VGA id strings of ATI HD3650 inside of code of 1B BIOS module of system BIOS for M50Sa. Does it mean that system BIOS may hold not only vBIOS as additional BIOS module (PCI Option ROM), but as a part of 1B also? I never read people changed 1B to manage MXM VGA to work... But ! In this case: should I just find that strings inside 1B (Single Link Arch BIOS module of system BIOS) regarding ATI HD3400 (for example) and replace them for 10de:0618 (nVidia G92 GeForce GTX 260M (rev a2))? It will be some kind of "adding my new VGA to white list of VGA board" of M50Sa. A little weird but why not?..

 

I changed PCI Option ROM for JMB360 - now it has BIOS version 1.07.24 (I extracted it from some of Zotac motherboard). It doesn't help.

I tried to install 1Gb of RAM, 2GB, 2+1Gb, 4Gb, 4+4Gb - no changes.

I replaced CMOS battery - no changes.

I disconnected IDE and tried to boot from USB and DVD - the same message.

I added to M50Sa BIOS new version of PCI Option ROM for GTX 260M (...12) - no changes.

Today I have main BIOS with added new version of PCI Option ROM for JMB360 and 260M, but I got the same error message upon boot. So, I'm working on HD3650. It seems that I should start to learn ACPI specs and look on DSDT and maybe something else.

 

It's really frustrating when it wont work, no matter what Good luck, with finding a working solution

 

Thanks, man. I think I am to modify DSDT by myself, since noone wants to do it for this old not popular mobo. The main difficulty for me is that I'm not sure what part of DSDT to edit... Maybe all table, maybe not only DSDT. I thought it was all about old version of JMB360 controller, but no, I was wrong.

 

OMG, can it be that I'm stupid? My GTX 260M has Atmel AT25F1024AN-10SU chip. Does it mean that it has its own vBIOS inside of it? Should I just flash my default BIOS in M50Sa and insert VGA? ^^ Do I need PCI Option ROM for 260M if its own vBIOS is allready present inside its Atmel chip?

 

Try to do this like You said. Flash default bios. put in vga card and try to turn it on. If atmel chip is presented then I will assume that vbios is in it. You have nothing to loose. That's the funny part with asus gtx260m I saw few photos of that's same board with and without eeprom chip on it. Description of those boards are confusing and at the end You don't know from which asus model comes board with/without soldered bios chip.

 

Thx. I tried. Default BIOS and the same message. BUT I did saved original vBIOS from card by using nvflash (from USB, DOS). It was extreme: since my 260m don't load into main BIOS upon start my keyboard is inactive after 7-15 second of system start too ^^ Thats why nvflash did save by using autoexec.bat with command to do it. But I can't flash modified vBIOS back to the card because I need to confirm the operation at last which I can't do (keyboard is inactive).
Soooo, Atmel chip is present and it has ....11 vBIOS on board. Everything is fine with the card according to nvflash. Without PCI Option ROM for 260m in main BIOS I got The Message. With PCI Option ROM (from the card itself) in main BIOS - I got... The Message. No changes. And the funniest part: I found some resistor or transistor (or something else) element that is fell off the 260m bottom side. LOL. I'm not sure that I got The Message from that fact but my next step is to meet with guys in service centre (not Asus, but one in my office). Let's see what the hell thing is fell off the card.

UP: more than 90% that it's capacitor.

 

Hi, great upgrades you make here!
Can you put a guide and/or pictures of how upgrading m50sv, in especial cpu via Bsel and video card?
Thanks

 

Hi, R_M_R!
Thanks! Actually I didn't succeded with new video card yet... I need to edit DSDT table or maybe something else. I'm starting to learn BIOS hacking.

As to your M50Sv - it has the same BIOS as my M50Sa. Completely the same. I checked this. So, you can buy Intel X9000 or X9100 CPU and use BSEL mode (I can add the photo of the process later or you can search via forum). After or before changing the CPU I advise you to upgrade your PSU - buy one with 150W at least. There are some Asus branded in retail market.
As to vga card - I'm not sure what to advise you. Someone said that Nvidia 9600, 9650 and 9800 will be a good choice for M50 Series.

 

I'm back for a while. I still have that poor M50Sa. Not because I'm lazy&poor but cause I'm accurate and stingy
So, now I'm trying to make it work with Intel Core 2 Duo P9700 via BSEL mod. Actually, the laptop doesn't want to boot with it even after I've done the BSEL mod. At the present moment I have no ideas why is it so. A cpu microcode for P9700 is unfindable but I got the microcode for P8800 which is almost the same. But the funniest thing is that I've done BSEL with X9100 and it worked! There is no big difference between X9100 and P9700 but it seems that it is at the level of Asus BIOS implementation.

 

Hi,
I read your posts and it is really good. I would like to ask you about something. I have a Asus M50VM-AS008C and I want to do the upgrade.
I want to do memory upgrade. The web is a lot of conflicting statements on the subject.
In Asus M50VM-AS008C can install memory 2xSO-DIMM DDR2 800 Mhz 4GB? This is not a problem? At the moment I have 2xSO-DIMM DDR2 800 Mhz 2GB
Do not have to do any modifications to the BIOS?

P.S.Sorry for my english, i'm still learning ;]

 

Well, my english is also not perfect. Mostly because I'm russian. So, back to your question. I believe you can try to install 2x4Gb SO-DIMM as I did. The BIOS is one for all of M50 laptops. You will see 8Gb of memory in Win 7 x64 and you don't have to do any modification for this in your laptop's BIOS.

 

, I did the BSEL mod with Intel Core 2 Duo P9700 CPU. But I did it in a very tricky way:
1. I've inserted the CPU microcode for new CPU.
2. I've flashed new BIOS with that microcode inside.
3. I've done the BSEL mod as usual.
4. And... with new BIOS my M50Sa just have freezed at the start-up - no action after showing total memory. And I couldn't launch the BIOS setup.
5. So, after a few weeks of nothing I tried to use an Asus built-in alternative start-up launcher for BIOS - aka Speed-blah-blah (don't remember the actual name). I've just pressed the dedicated button on the surface of the laptop (not the power one, different).
6. And I got the exception, which let me to launch the Windows.

Now I can work with my new P9700 but there are 2 further exceptions: OS thinks that CPU is working with 1,05 GHz speed and the total memory is 3Gb (instead of 8Gb installed).
Currently I don't know how to solve it. It seems that this goes from badbrewed Asus's BIOS...

 

Update.
Now I can work with my new P9700 but there is one further exception: OS thinks that the total memory is 3Gb (instead of 8Gb installed).
Currently I don't know how to solve it. It seems that this goes from badbrewed Asus's BIOS...
There is something in Memory remap feature (I don't have it in my original BIOS). I need it for correct work with P9700. At now OS shows me that 5Gb of SDRAM is hardware reserved and it's fault of course.

 

OC'ed P9700 back to 2701,5MHz (real-time DRAM frequency is 428.8MHz), CPU Temp is 42C (MAX per session was 55C).

 

Hey,
Thank you for your response to my question. Can you tell me more about your memory? What company did you use? Crucial, Kingston, Adata, Helix, or Samsung? What is the timing?

 

Sure. DDR2-800 (400 MHz) SO-DIMM SDRAM, PC2-6400 (400 MHz), part number QUM2S-4G800T6, non-OC'ed DRAM frequency 332.5 MHz, FSB RAM 3:5, timings are 5:5:5:15. Two modules x 4096 MB. The manufacturer is QUMO (China). Actually that was the cheapest DDR2 memory available on our market.
The main trick is to use a PC2-6400 memory instead of a PC2-5300 supported "officially". By using a memory bank with higher basic frequency (800 MHz) you force it to work with lower timings under your enviroment - like in my case, my banks work with 5:5:5:15 at 333 MHz but they should work with 6:6:6:18 at 400 MHz

Also, according to this http://www.intel.com/products/notebook/chipsets/pm45/pm45-overview.htm you can try to install a DDR3 memory banks with DDR3-800/1066. And your chipset basically supports up to 8 Gb SDRAM. So, you can even try to install more than total 8 Gb SDRAM. Usually a chipset can hold >= of memory officially declared in Intel's documentation.

For example, my M50Sa has Intel PM965 Mobile chipset which officially supports only 4 Gb DDR2-533 / DDR2-667 max. BUT. I have installed 8 Gb of DDR2-800 and it works great.

 

works fine 2 x Crucial CT51264AC800
Crucial CT51264AC800 — Модули памяти — купить на Яндекс.Маркете
on my m50sa, without changing any timings and other settings

 

Hi Kaza, great info.

I was hoping you could share the steps for the BSEL mod, I recently got a T9900 and want to try it out.

The threads in the forum don't have any pictures anymore...

Thanks!